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Why haven't I subscribed to this yet? Truly a great AAR!
 
One who raises a sword against hussitism is a enemy of the revolution!
And they shall die by a hussite sword of justice or steel!
Conquer Germania!
Bring your former glory as a Holy Roman Emperor back!
 
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Storm clouds gathering
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From the very first day of the Hussite reformation it was clear that a military confrontation with Catholic powers was inevitable in the long run; the only thing that was not clear was which countries would lead the Catholics to a holy war against the Hussite heretics. That it was Bavaria who would answer the call has more than one explanation. Except the more obvious ones, like the role of the interests of Bohemian Catholic émigrés in Bavaria who of course wanted to get back their lands and property which they had lost, there were also less apparent reasons why Bavaria became the leader of the Catholic reaction.

Most of these reasons were related to Bavarian ambitions in the Holy Roman Empire. Dukes of Bavaria were traditionally ranked among the three most influential candidates for the Empire’s crown [1], together with Brandenburg and Austria. In the early 15th century, Bavaria held the title for many years before losing the crown to Austria, which in turn lost it to Brandenburg in the early 1450s. By that time, recovery of the title became the single most important foreign policy objective of the ruling dynasty in Bavaria [2].

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HRE Crown

Attaining this objective was difficult, however, since the country which sought the emperorship needed to get the support of majority of electors as well as the blessing of the Pope. There were three ways how to earn the support of the electors: a country could either win them over by creating a strong web of royal marriages with the important secular electors (the preferred way in Austria), or it could bribe them with large sums of money or lastly, it could convince them by doing exemplary and popular things in the defense of Christendom which would increase the prestige of the country and persuade the electors that the ruler of such a country deserves the crown.

In the case of Bavaria, the potential of royal marriages had been exhausted, the state coffers were too empty to afford bribes and so the only remaining option was to try to sway the opinion of other HRE countries in favor of Bavaria by defending the unity of the Catholic Church against the heretics who usurped power in a conveniently close country. By doing this, Bavaria would kill two birds with one stone since eradication of heresy in Central Europe was also the main goal of the Papacy and so the Pope would surely support the Bavarian duke as the next Emperor if he helped him to achieve this goal.

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The Pope
It would be a mistake to think that the Pope was a passive player in this game; in fact he had correctly guessed the Bavarian ambitions beforehand and prepared a strategy how to support these ambitions in order to keep Bavaria focused on its objective. Through secret channels the Pope offered large financial subsidies and his personal diplomatic support for Bavaria’s candidacy, if Bavaria assumed the role of the leader of a Catholic crusade in Bohemia, which would return the country to the loving embrace of mother Church and save the souls of millions from eternal damnation. It goes without saying that the Pope’s support greatly encouraged the Bavarian ruler, who was now determined to go ahead with his plan.

At fist the Bavarians hoped that the ground for re-catholization of Bohemia could be cleared by a large uprising of Bohemian Catholics in the borderlands, which would weaken the king Ladislav I enough for him to contemplate returning to Catholic faith under the mere threat of a Catholic intervention. The pope would then grant him dispensation in exchange of his promise to uproot heresy in his country. This would be a great triumph for both Bavaria and the Papacy.

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The hopes that the Hussite reformation could be destroyed without war were soon dashed though, when the rebel Catholic army organized by Catholic émigrés and funded by Bavaria and the Church was annihilated near the town on Pilsen (Plzeň) [3] in south-west Bohemia. Only after this fiasco did the Bavarian duke realize that the Hussite heretics had the support of the people and that the king’s authority was too strong to be weakened by any rebellion he could organize; especially because the Bohemian military was obviously very loyal to the king and also well-organized, disciplined and strongly motivated by heretical beliefs.



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[1] As far as I understand the HRE dynamics, Emperors were not elected in this period; Roman kings were. A ruler which wanted to become an Emperor had to be elected the king of the Romans first and then persuade the Pope to coronate him an Emperor, for which he had to travel to Rome. I simplified the procedure in this AAR; in EU3 the Emperors are elected so let’s just leave it as it is.

[2] Bavaria became the rival of the Emperor. In Magna Mundi, you need to officially become the Emperor’s rival in order to have any chance of being elected; the whole dynamics of HRE including the way the electors choose who to vote for has been profoundly changed in the mod.

[3] Yes, you guessed right – I defeated a Catholic uprising in one of my provinces. Surprise surprise ;)
 
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***
The worst trap...
***

After the fiasco with the attempted Catholic revolt, Bavaria had to change the strategy; instead of trying to weaken Bohemia by stirring up rebellions, it would try to break the country with an economic blockade. To do that, Bavaria took advantage of holding the Europe’s most important trading center – Venice – which was captured and annexed during the wars with the merchant republic a decade earlier.


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The Prague groschen

Bohemian economy was traditionally dependent on silver mining in Kutná Hora (Kuttenberg) [1], which was in decline by the half of the 15th century due to exhaustion of the mines. In order to prevent the devaluation of groš [2], Bohemia had to obtain hard currency by means of foreign trade; in exchange for Bohemian goods it was receiving gold and silver coins which were preventing the inflation from ever becoming a serious problem [3]. Though this was a sound economic policy which contributed a great deal to the prosperity of the country in the first half of the 15th century, it made Bohemia vulnerable to foreign economic pressure.

Therefore, when Bavaria closed Venice for Bohemian trade [4] it was a big problem for Bohemia. Without trading there, its vulnerable economy could collapse. This would, as the Bavarians had hoped, force Bohemia to declare war on Bavaria in an attempt to re-open the trade center for their merchants. A declaration of war issued by heretics against a good Catholic country would surely be the last straw for Catholics all over Europe – they would unite behind Bavaria in a crusade to get rid of the heretic threat. This way, Bavarian ruler would gain the support in needed to become the next Holy Roman Emperor and he wouldn’t have to worry about possible ramifications of invasion into Bohemia without a proper casus belli.

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“This means war!” was the first thought that crossed Ladislav’s mind when he heard about the Bavarian embargo. Fortunately for his country, the aging monarch was very intelligent and like his father he understood well the intricacies of diplomacy and foreign policy. The move was obviously a provocation and Ladislav I had no intention to give the Bavarians what they wanted. On the other hand, he had to do something before the economy starts feeling the consequences of the embargo. So Ladislav realized that the war in the shadow of which he had been living for so long has finally come, but “if the Bavarians want a war, they’ll have to declare it themselves!” he concluded.

And so in the official reply to Bavarian duke, Ladislav denounced him as a puppet with strings leading all the way to Rome and called him a coward who like a woman dances around a problem instead of being a man who resolves disputes honorably and openly. The duke of Bavaria, unlike the Bohemian king, wasn’t known for his cunning and self-control. In a moment of rage which followed after reading Ladislav’s letter, he issued an order to gather troops and declared war on Bohemia – and he made the terrible mistake of doing it in front of a room full of foreign ambassadors waiting for audience, so even if he had wanted to take it back after he calmed down, he couldn’t. After all, he declared the war to protect his honor, so backing off would mean a great humiliation in the eyes of other rulers. Only later he realized that he got caught in his own trap [5].

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Note the claims Bohemia has on Slovakia and Thuringia

Had Ladislav I declared war on Bavaria, he would have found himself in war with most of Europe, but when he tricked the Bavarian ruler to declare war first, he ensured that only the immediate and most loyal allies of Bavaria would join the war on its side which gave Bohemia a chance to win. But by far the most important thing was that this skillful move got him an important ally – His Majesty Albrecht IV Achilles, the Margrave of Brandenburg and Holy Roman Emperor. Despite it looks strange and even absurd that the Emperor – a protector of Catholic faith and the Papacy - allied himself with denounced heretics, a short discursion into the foreign affairs of Brandenburg will shed some light on his motivation.

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Bohemia is a bit outnumbered...

The position of the margrave depended on the support of the Reich electors, one of which was the king of Bohemia. At first, Brandenburg enjoyed almost unanimous support, but after a series of devastating wars with Denmark which repeatedly tried to gain control over Hanseatic League and the imperial city of Lübeck, Brandenburg was exhausted and the prestige of the Emperor, whose main duty was to protect Holy Roman Empire from foreign aggression, was badly damaged. It was an open secret that Bavaria had the ambition to seize the crown for itself, so the Margrave-Emperor’s advisors became even more worried about their ruler’s standing in the Empire. Albrecht IV himself was no admirer of Hussitism; in fact, he was contemplating an intervention against Bohemia during the Hussite conversion of Lusatia years ago. Like most contemporary Europeans, he believed that Hussitism was a heresy and an abomination in the eyes of God, but on the other hand it was the vote of the king of these heretics which ensured that the crown stayed in Brandenburg [6].

Therefore, when Bavaria and its allies declared war on Bohemia, Albrecht IV chose interests of his dynasty over interests of the head of his Church. Brandenburg’s entry into the war on Bohemian side then effectively dissuaded other HRE states from intervention. In the 1st Hussite War, the Catholic League consisting of Bavaria, Görz, Lorraine, Aquileia and Milan would fight against the unholy alliance of Ladislav I, the King of Bohemia and Albrecht IV Achilles, the Margrave of Brandenburg and Holy Roman Emperor.

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The main alliances on the eve of 1st Hussite War

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[1] At its height, it provided about 30% of Europe’s supply of silver. This helped Bohemia to achieve a sort of major power status under the Luxembourg dynasty in the 14th century.

[2] Silver groš (groschen) was the most widespread currency in Bohemia in that time, if I am not mistaken. It was later replaced by silver Thaler (tolar) from which the US dollar took its name.

[3] In Magna Mundi, just as in vanilla game, gold/silver mines give you some minimum inflation. The problem with MM is that inflation is a REALLY nasty thing you don’t want to see or hear about, ever. Since you can’t get rid of it unless you hire a decent Master of Mint advisor or adopt National Bank or Bureaucracy as the national idea, the best thing you can do is to prevent it from accumulating in the first place. This can be done by trading: once you obtain a good source of income from trade, you reduce your reliance on the silver mines and thus stop the inflation from appearing at 0% mint.

[4] Yup, they issued an embargo against me and it actually did hurt me! Sometimes, the AI surprises you... usually in a way you don’t like :mad:

[5] There is a new spy mission in Magna Mundi, which you can use to trick your neighbour to declare war on you, if many (many!) conditions are met and you have a lot of ducats to pay for it. I was lucky.

[6] Hey, I had to explain it somehow! It’s not that implausible, just look at what Emperor Sigismund did in OTL, when he needed to get the Bohemian estates to agree with his coronation – he simply made deal with the Hussites because it was in his interests. In my alternate reality, Brandenburg wants to defeat Bavarian ambitions to become Emperor. Sure, in short term allying with the Hussites would harm Brandenburg’s reputation, but in the long term, humiliation of the main contender for the crown would serve its interests. Plus, I don’t expect much from my new “ally”, a distraction at best.
 
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Thanks for the replies to all of you ;)

I don't know exactly what my war goals are going to be yet. So far, I've just been translating my notes I took while playing the game about a month ago. Now I'll get back to it (hopefully there will be no problems since I upgraded MM version from 1.401 to 1.403) and fight this war.

First I'll see if I can defeat Bavaria fast. It might look easy but it isn't, they have holdings in Italy (including Venice) and other enemies are spread accross Europe. I don't like sending my soldiers so far, attrition would probably increase my war exhaustion quickly. Let's see if the Emperor can do something about them for me.

As I see it, I will try to

a) liberate Venice (to ensure free trade);
b) extract some money from my defeated enemies;
c) maybe even force convert someone, we'll see about that.

Just a question for everyone: should I edit the save file and increase the AI aggressiveness? I think the AI in most of my MM games is way too passive, so I usually set it on "high" these days, but since I started this game earlier the setting is "normal".
 
I upgraded MM version from 1.401 to 1.403) and fight this war.

you should have no problem, i upgraded from 1.402 to 1.403 midgame and continued with my aar fine

Just a question for everyone: should I edit the save file and increase the AI aggressiveness? I think the AI in most of my MM games is way too passive, so I usually set it on "high" these days, but since I started this game earlier the setting is "normal".

my thoughts really, AI countires weave strong alliances, throw guarantees here and there, naturally then they're hesitant to start a conflict (i'd be too) but seeing one or two wars (or none) going on somewhere in a god-forgotten place is not what the EUIII era was about, right? (although sometimes it's really strange, why doesn't france gobble up weak brittany, is beyond me)

ubik stated somwhere that quitting to desktop solves the problem, that's what i do every 5 years or so, it helps although sort of marginally

as for settings, i'm going to change them to 'AI aggressive' too, remember this has to be done every time you start a game (as pbly you started with normal at the beginning)

we can only hope the AI in MMP2 with new helius's thingy will be more aggressive (yet not overaggressive)
 
you should have no problem, i upgraded from 1.402 to 1.403 midgame and continued with my aar fine

I hope so. The bad thing is I have to redo the little changes I made to the previous versions since I forgot to backup tham :eek:o

my thoughts really, AI countires weave strong alliances, throw guarantees here and there, naturally then they're hesitant to start a conflict (i'd be too) but seeing one or two wars (or none) going on somewhere in a god-forgotten place is not what the EUIII era was about, right? (although sometimes it's really strange, why doesn't france gobble up weak brittany, is beyond me)

Yeah, it's strange. Historically speaking, if Bohemia had done what it did in my AAR, everybody would have just declared war at the earliest opportunity - it would have been a bloodbath (well, bloodier bloodbath tjhan in OTL ;) ).

In EU3, you convert, your relations with everybody are terrible, but nobody attacks you. The AI is way too cowardly for my taste. I'd like to see more alliances/wars between great powers. They usually just bully small countries and avoid wars with each other, which leads to very ahistorical results.
 
Beat on the Brat Bavaria!
 
Well, well well. This certainly looks interesting.

And well-annotated. Count me subscribed.
 
It will take some time before I get to play the game and write another batch of updates though.